A Brit abroad

Late July in the Pyrenees

This weekend I headed south to visit Andrew in Montpellier, though we didn't stay there long - at rather short notice we decided to take advantage of the glorious weather and head into the Pyrenees. While the focus of the trip was hiking and scenery, I wanted birds too, and perusing various site guides suggested that the area around Gavarnie was a good bet for all of these (thanks also to 'rosbifs' at BirdForum for his prompt reply with some up-to-date gen).

We left Montpellier just early enough on Friday to avoid the holiday traffic, and 5 hours later found ourselves in the Vallee des Gaves. Driving by the Pic de Pibeste around 730pm, I immediately spotted a Lammergeier (Gypaete barbu) over the high cliffs, but we were both too tired and hungry to stop!

Next morning dawned depressingly grey and cloudy in the valley, but we decided to push up to the high tops anyway. This proved to be a good decision, as we soon broke through the cloud into brilliant sunshine.

In spite of arriving shortly after 9am, the Port de Gavarnie car park was already full! The first part of the walk produced a few Water Pipits (Pipit spioncelle), several vocal Marmots and a few flyover Alpine Choughs (Chocard a bec jaune).

The high-elevation meadows were carpeted in wildflowers - anyone know what this one is?

English Iris and mountain backdrop.

The mass of flowers proved attractive to butterflies - most were too fast-moving for me to identify, though I managed to photograph this Silky Ringlet.

The walk provided some of the most spectacular mountain scenery I've seen in a long time.

Mid-morning I spotted some perched Griffon Vultures (Vautour fauve) - conspicuous even at great distance.

We later had astounding overhead views of them flying off to feed.

Most of the breeding passerines had young which had already fledged the nest. We spotted an Alpine Accentor (Accenteur alpin) family...

... plus newly-fledged Black Redstarts (Rougequeue noir) and Wheatears (Traquet motteux).

An adult Snowfinch (Niverolle alpine), only my second ever, was searching for insects here, but ran around at such a pace that it proved tricky to digiscope.

Driving back down to Gavarnie we ran into a pair of Red-backed Shrike (Pie-grieche ecorcheur), got flight views of a Rock Thrush (Monticole de roche) and spotted a noisy family party of Red-billed Choughs (Crave a bec rouge).

We took a detour a little way up the Oussoue valley, hoping for a glimpse of the nesting Lammergeier - no joy there, but a singing Rock Bunting (Bruant fou) and an unexpected Citril Finch (Venturon montagnard) were bonuses.

The area was excellent for butterflies, including my lifer Apollo. Fritillaries were represented by Spotted, Meadow Fritillary and this Heath.

Marbled Skipper was relatively straightforward to identify...

... but I was less sure about these two:

I'd go for Cinquefoil for the former and Carline for the latter. Is it possible to ID the Blue sp. in the second photo? Comments on flower and butterfly identifications are most welcome; please email me at rjhall@surfbirder.com.

In the late-afternoon we took a relaxing stroll around the village of Luz St Sauveur, where Crag Martins (Hirondelle de rochers) entertained us swooping low overhead. Seemed odd to se these nesting in buildings here, while many of the cliffs higher in the mountains held House Martin (Hirondelle de fenetre) colonies!

On Sunday we drove over the Col du Tourmalet, dodging cyclists all the way up.

As predicted by 'rosbifs', we were treated to great views of Snow Finches in the field adjacent to the car park. This youngster had already fledged the nest...

... and some of the adults were already acquiring their winter yellow bills.

The long journey back to Montpellier was punctuated with more Crag Martins, sightseeing and a delicious cassoulet in Foix.

The final stretch of road between Narbonne and Montpellier produced Bee-eater (Guepier d'Europe) and Roller (Rollier d'Europe) as 'autoroute ticks'. This may be my last posting in a little while, as I'm back off to California for a week of work and another 2 weeks of birding my brains out. Happy summer everyone! :-D

Briefly back in Blighty

I just spent 10 days back in the homeland, working with the clever people at Silwood Park's Centre for Population Biology. Given the less than inspiring weather forecast, I left bins and scope in France, but bought the camera just in case. While hurtling past Pitsea on the A13 I idly wondered if the Spoonbill might be visible as a big white dot in Vange Marshes - no sign of that, but I did spot birding pal Neil's car at the roadside. A few texts later and we arranged an early morning (6am on a Sunday - ugh) visit to my old stomping grounds of Fleet Head. Just before going through the first of many gates we spotted a Little Owl (Cheveche d'Athena) a few fence-posts down. My delight at seeing the bird (my first in at least 5 years) was somewhat subdued when scope views revealed it had a manky eye.

I've seen Burrowing Owls with similar problems that appear to be able to survive without difficulty, so fingers crossed he won't meet the same fate as another well-known owl I read about this week ;-)

Declining farmland birds seem to be holding their own in the area - several Corn Buntings (Bruant proyer) and Skylarks (Alouette des champs) were singing, and it was fun to see 'yellow' Yellow Wagtails (Bergeronnette printaniere) again.

The return shorebird passage is in full swing - we noted a few Common Sands (Chevalier guignette), a Spotshank (Chevalier arlequin), Whimbrel (Courlis corlieu) and a couple of groups of Black-tailed Godwits (Barge a queue noire), resplendent in their summer plumage.

This young Lapwing (Vanneau huppe) may well have been born in the area.

A flight of 5 Little Egrets (Aigrette garzette) would have been unheard of in my visits here as a teenager...

And now a quizbird: can you tell what it is yet? (Answer at the bottom of the post)

In the estuary I spotted this small patch of cordgrass (Spartina sp). Western Europe has its own native cordgrass (S. maritima), though this has been widely replaced by S. anglica, itself a product of hybridisation with S. alterniflora introduced from the US. Given the proximity of Fleet Head to Foulness, one of the last UK strongholds of S. maritima, this may be the genuine article. Sorry, perhaps not of immense interest to anyone reading this, but I did devote 2 years of my life to Spartina invasions in the western US...

I spent most of my evenings in London, where Ring-necked Parakeets (Perruche a collier) appear to have colonised Putney. While much of Britain endured devastating flooding, London enjoyed some positively balmy evenings.

The demon drink drove me to an emotional karaoke performance in Leicester Square...

... but at least I stopped short of pole-dancing on the underground...

... or donning a floral bra!

And the answer to this week's quizbird is (drumroll)... Sedge Warbler (Phragmite des joncs)!

Thanks to Neil for repeatedly surrendering his scope to my digiscoping whims.

Midsummer blues

There are many reasons for my lack of birding at this time of year. Birds are usually pretty discreet right now as most have stopped singing and are feeding young, and I'm usually making up for lost work time before the return migration starts. However, my main reason for not going birding is this:

Thanks to La Nina, much of northwestern Europe is 'enjoying' its wettest summer since records began, and Paris is no exception. It's rained to some extent every day for the last 2 weeks, and I even managed to catch a cold at the end of June - madness! Having a cold provided a good chance to work on the 'garden list' - a fruiting tree by the railway has been hopping with birds, including enormous numbers of young Blue Tits (Mesange bleue).

These were joined by a Crested Tit (Mesange huppee) at one point, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch it. The local Carrion Crows (Corneille noire) had to perform acrobatics to get to the dwindling fruit supplies...

A family of Blackcaps (Fauvette a tete noire) has fledged here too.

Last Friday the rain eased off in the afternoon, so I took the bus to the Etangs de Saclay in the hope of seeing Little Bittern (Blongios nain). After maybe an hour on site, a male flew across the lake, but in spite of pinpointing exactly where it landed, I didn't manage to re-find it. I passed the time getting photos of an obliging family of Great Crested Grebes (Grebe huppe), the adult's plumage already showing lots of wear.

The Little Grebes (Grebe castagneux) were typically keeping very much to the vegetation.

This young Coot was happily minding its own business...

... until this menacing adult forced it on its way.

I walked back to mine, picking up some decent farmland birds. Had it not called, I'd have struggled to ID this young Yellow Wagtail (Bergeronnette printaniere).

This male Linnet (Linotte melodieuse) was hiding out in the wheat fields.

Scattered clouds made for a pretty sunset.

Grey Partridge (Perdrix grise) taken just after 10pm!

On Sunday a walk around campus produced pretty much no birds, but a flowering Broomrape sp.

and several Broad-leaved Helleborines.

Roll on August!

Butterflying Fontainebleau

I spent a relatively cultural weekend in the Ile-de-France, visiting Chartres, Versailles and the Chateau de Fontainebleau - though the latter site was blatantly an excuse to go walking in the wonderful forest there!

Butterflies were very much in evidence, notably large numbers of Swallowtails.

Fritillaries of at least two species were present, including High Brown...

... and Silver-washed.

A delicate Wood White sp.

Great Banded Grayling - more impressive with its wings open!

This Map butterfly was a new species for me.I didn't know that there are different colour morphs in successive broods - this is a second generation adult.

Quiz time - is it possible to identify this tatty hairstreak sp. to species? Answers to rjhall_AT_surfbirder.com please.

Even in mid-afternoon, there was a reasonable amount of bird activity, including singing Wood and Bonelli's Warblers (Pouillots siffleur et de Bonelli), and many display-flighting Tree Pipits (Pipit des arbres).

This Redstart (Rougequeue a front blanc) with a bill full of grubs presumably had young nearby.